His private life confined to the disaster

The art of good programming is to project a film high-potential "palmistique", history to awaken the fervour of festival-goers blunted by the 20 films eaten in five days at the beginning of the second week of competition. Hit hat so Thierry Frémaux, Delegate General of the festival, which took out of his own, as soon as the meeting on Monday morning, a serious candidate for the Supreme reward, "Biutiful" of Alejandro González Iñárritu. The Mexican is not an unknown on the Croisette. In 2000, he had won the grand prize and young critics for "PERROS Amours" price, then staged for "babel" in 2006. A gradual rise of the stairs of the glory that might culminate with a palme d'Or in 2010.

The film, very dark, put you in at the outset with a mysterious pre-intro scene whose meaning is light at the end. At Barcelona, Uxbal (Javier Bardem permanently present on the screen and that just might win the award for best actor) discovers that he is terminally ill with cancer that has settled to the prostate. His life, at the time of this announcement, is already more than murky. His work is to provide clandestine labour Catalan companies and to protect immigrants and their employers by bribing cops. It has additional income by telling their passage to the relatives of recent deaths in the beyond. A real gift, even if some are in doubt and think that it is seeking to make money with the distress of the people.

His private life confined to the disaster. He left his wife, Marambra. Victim of a mental imbalance, an alcoholic, she alternates the phases of euphoria and depression. Unable to care for her children, she prefers to go partying, to find themselves at the end of the night, drunk in the bed of the brother of Uxbal. It is in this extreme environment that our hero must meet the needs of his two small children, Anna and Mateo.

At the time, confronted with death, Uxbal will abandon them a lot more than uncertain, other disasters has befallen him. His contact in the police he removes his protection and launches a severe clean-up operation in African media. Worse, one night, 30 Chinese, men, women and children sleeping in an underground warehouse, are suffocated because of poor quality heaters Uxbal provided them.

Often untenable by describing flood effects of cancer, the violence of the exploitation of human misery, the hardness of the relationships between people, "biutiful" spares nothing to the Viewer. Only thin rays of hope: love despite all wear Uxbal, Marambra, Anna and Mateo, as well as the solidarity which will demonstrate the African stowaways.

"biutiful" timely to launch the competition. Because, if it had been previously good level, the 2010 vintage had not yet offered one of these moments that make the charm of Cannes. With the exception perhaps of Mike Leigh's "Another Year", palme d'Or in 1996 with "Secrets and lies". In the heart of this film, which does not déroutera connoisseurs of the work of Mike Leigh, a couple of English retirees, Tom and Gerri (sic). In this "another year" which flows along the seasons orchestrated by work performed with love in their collective Garden, they are at the centre of a swirl of visitors in more or less distress. As their friend, Mary, a sexy, also touching that paumée quinquagénaire, a little too focused on the bottle and the same garçons. From over-stimulation to the Blues in a blink of an eye, Lesley Manville is a very credible option for the award.

On the basis of good surprises, finally, the conduct of French films, whether "Tour" Mathieu Amalric, or "The Princess of Montpensier" of Bertrand Tavernier as a conventional form successful, despite its length, to move and Captivate. Also note the successful film of Gilles Marchand, "The other world", addiction to video games, deadly attraction of virtual worlds and the risk of borders to abolish between reality and fiction. In the beginning of the second week, the palme d'Or, it is still virtual.